Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Rumor Has It...

...comedienne cum daytime chat show queen Ellen DeGeneres and actress wife Portia (de Rossi) DeGeneres are downsizing in Beverly Hills, CA.

Well, sort of.

All us celebrity and property gossips spun like dervishes on crack yesterday over the sensational scuttlebutt about the legally married Tinseltown ladies selling their multi-residence Beverly Hills, CA compound to American Idol host and reality tee-vee tycoon Ryan Seacrest for a skin-peeling (and still alleged) 37 or so million dollars.

At the very tail of Your Mama's discussion on the matter we dropped a quick nugget about the Beverly Hills, CA house that word on the real estate street is the famously peripatetic scissor sisters—now in need of a new home—have acquired or are in the process of acquiring.

Your Mama has now been told by three separate and well-connected sources from deep inside the Platinum Triangle real estate game that the Ellen DeGeneres and her Missus coughed up between 17 and 18 million dollars for an approximately 8,500 square foot, single-story mid-century modern mansion in the exceedingly trendy and uncommonly expensive lower Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills.

The house in question was originally designed for in 1958 for Diane and Charles Skouras Jr. by renowned architect Hal Levitt. Mister Levitt, many of the children may already know, is the man responsible for a number of architectural tour de forces in and around Beverly Hills including a residence reworked by architect Larry Totah sold by recently deceased hair honcho Vidal Sassoon in September 2010 to an unknown buyer for $10,000,000. The original design for the Bev Hills house Jennifer Aniston sold last year to mutual fund mogul Bill Gross for $35,000,000 was by Hal Levitt and Jenny Aniston and man-friend Justin Theroux are said to be shacked up in a $40,000 per month rental originally designed by Mister Levitt.

In 2001 photographer Steven Meisel (with super-stylist Lori Goldstein) used the Skouros crib for his iconic (and beyond-fab) Versace ad campaign Four Days in L.A.

Mister and Missus Skouras—or their heirs, we're not sure—sold the nearly one acre mini-estate in August 2002 to prolific property developer/hotelier Brad Korzen and decorator wife Kelly Wearstler for, according to property records we peeped, $4,025,000.

Miz Wearstler, a lightening rod in the cut-throat decorating world, did what decorators with dough do, she gave the low-slung sprawler a do-over in her freaky-deaky signature style that takes more than a few cues from the playbook of soo-blime maximalist decorator Tony Duquette. Miz Wearstler had every square inch of the over-the-top house photographed for and featured in her 2006 coffee table book Domicilium Decoratus.

The Korzen-Wearstlers listed the gated estate (shown above in listing photos from the time) in May 2005 for $13,395,000 and sold it, according to the documents we perused, in April 2006 for $9,900,000. The buyer, according to a well-connected source and some two-headed sleuthing with aide de camp Heidi Hightower was former CIA analyst turned Emmy winning film and television producer Bob Cort (Jumanji, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Runaway Bride) and his top-tier literary talent agent turned media executive wife Rosalie Swedlin.

Online information we dug up out of the interweb shows the Swedlin-Corts engaged a top-flight Beverly Hills broker to shop the property off-market with an inexplicably vague asking price of "From $20,000,000," whatever that means

Our chit-chatty sources say the Missus DeGeneres paid somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 or 18 million dollars for the glassy house that listing information we teased out of the interweb shows has 4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, spacious "formal" living and dining areas with loads of white marble, a colossal "commercial kitchen" with two center work islands, and a sun-drenched family room with built-in entertainment cabinet. Walls of sliding glass doors glide open to various terraces and patios—one with outdoor fireplace—transition the interior spaces to the thickly planted private gardens and rectilinear swimming pool with marble surround.

While it might appear that the Missus Degeneres are downsizing—the Bev Hills compound they just sold to Ryan Seacrest for $37,000,000 has a main house, guest house, pool pavilion, additional staff quaters/gym and two more residences—by Your Mama's rudimentary (and not necessarily accurate) calculations the property-mad Sapphic sisters have paid out (around) forty million dollars for their three high-priced and high-maintenance properties SoCal properties. That's 17 or eighteen million for the new one in Bev Hills, somewhere around $10,000,000 for a 26-care horsey compound in Hidden Valley near Thousand Oaks, CA bought in June 2009 and briefly on the market last year for $16,500,000, and $12,000,000 for a sleek and sexy bluff-top contemporary in Malibu, CA they bought last year from fellow property-addict Brad Pitt.

listing photos (top group): Sotheby's International Realty
listing photos (bottom group): Westside Estate Agency

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

This appears to the house that Aniston's Levitt house looked down upon from its perch. Design-wise, it's a mini version (white modern, full of light) of the one Ellen is vacating for Ms. Seacrest. Surprisingly close to the road and on a popular road given E's past homes in both the Beverly and Hollywood Hills. Alas, it will surely be but a pit stop for Miss E.

Mr. Wallace Ridge

Anonymous said...

whoa, homeboy needs to take a breather from all tis real estate.

Anonymous said...

Is this the places on N Hillcrest Rd? $17 Mil is way to much for this pad

Anonymous said...

Wow, unbeliveable that they sold that amazing compound with brilliant underground parking and everything. They really had their own place there, large, private and most of all, beautiful beyond belief. If they thought 3 houses there were too much they couldve kept just the main one and rent or tear the others down. What a waste going from that coumpound to this cr*p (relative, compared to that).

Anonymous said...

Clicked through to the Sotheby's website, and it says that the house sold for 15.5 m. That seems slightly more reasonable than the estimate of 17-18m, given that it sold in 2006, at the height of the market and fully renovated, for 9 something.

Not that any of this silly stuff seems to make the slightest difference to Ellen. (From a perfunctory crunching of numbers on the property Seacrest bought, it seems very possible she lost in the realm of 15-20m. No?)

Desert Donna said...

This expemlifies what is so intruiging about celebrity real estate! Why would she leave that to go here? Is this just a pit stop as one of the children said? Is she building and needs a temporary pad? And if its so close to a major road, why would she give up total privacy? Will she make Portia dress like the woman in the Versace ad full time?? I just love this game!!

Anonymous said...

anon 6:23, we don't know how many parcels Seacrest got for his $39 mil. I don't think he got all of it for that amount of money.

Anonymous said...

7:24 Raises a great point and one I thought of yesterday...maybe she held back some property in the sale? Though the sum of the parts is worth the whole to Ryan or any buyer no?

Anonymous said...

Well, that's an interesting angle. I guess we don't know what he got for his 39m. They razed at least one of the adjacent houses they bought (the one Jade Mills owned?) and integrated that property into their garden. Can't imagine that Seacrest would want to subdivide that back out. But what about the others? I believe there was one above that had sight lines down into their place, and then a smallish one toward the base of the street -- which essentially at that point became their private drive.

Anonymous said...

I never saw them actually moving the the PItt house in Malibu. This makes sense, wonder how many millions they will spend renovating this as it needs some work.

And for that matter, how many millions they spend building the second floor and renovating the Malibu house.

I highly double they sold Seacrest everything for the $37m. Bet he bought the main house an the garden lot next door... and they own the first house on the street and the house up on the hill that they will sell off to bridge the gap of losses.

Anonymous said...

If she didn't include 1199 Cabrillo Dr. and 1263 Lago Vista Place in the sale, she could almost break even......

Petra's said...

It wouldn't make sense to only buy part of the compound, if you look at aerial shots it was assembled in such a way to make it one cohesive estate, gates and all. Plus, Ryan definitely values his privacy after the whole stalker situation. It's almost certain that he bought all the properties.

Anonymous said...

Petra - Actually the first property is outside the gates of the main house, and the other property has its own gates on a diffrent street.

Anonymous said...

I like this home! It's true movie star quality and not some humongous dick of an estate.

I think she'll stay! I would.

Candy Spelling said...

I get that this is Trousdale Estates, but come on. Close to $18 million for that? When she likely lost near that amount on her compound sale? I mean, I get that Ellen has money but just throwing it around the way she does is so silly. She'll take another big hit on this place whenever she decides to sell it (probably sooner than later).

Should have taken a hint from Mama Candy, who just pocketed $50 mill on the sale of the Manor and purchase of the new Sky Manor! That's right!

Carla Ridge said...

Given the incredible sums commanded by the best and largest works by Harold Levitt, it completely baffles and frustrates me that people still TEAR HIS WORK DOWN, rather than sell it and move on. It's clearly of great value, to the informed among modern-leaning one-percenters.

My bafflement arises from Casey Wasserman inheriting and razing his grandparents' (Lew and Edie) legendary Levitt just a few blocks away down Doheny Road, within the past few months -- JUST as the BH Preservation Ordinance is getting going, btw. What will go up in its place is anyone's guess, but if he didn't like the house -- and didn't want to honor his grandparents' legacy -- he could have taken the money and built another (Catas)Trophy Mansion on any number of available (or lesser-profile) sites within a few block radius.

Completely baffled, I am. I can only think it's spite...against Lew and Edie PERSONALLY, whom he turned out to honor not at all.

Candy Spelling said...

Actually, come to think of it, didn't Jeffrey Katzenberg pay $35 million for a Trousdale Estates teardown a couple years ago?

Maybe it's not so insane.

Side note: I always enjoy Carla Ridge's highly informed comments!

Anonymous said...

Candy I second that motion on Carla's comments. I am not as familar with the Wasserman property as Carla, but it is frightening that Cassie (no not a spelling error) would destroy his grandparents tasteful legacy, when plenty of buildable lots were at her..errr his disposal to purchase (with their inheritance).

Carla Ridge said...

Thank you, Candy, for your sweetness!

Let me add to that, the Katzenberg Krib (whose interiors I'm told have been done by Sandy Gallin) are reported to cost another $20 million, so he may conceivably be "all in" for over $55 million. That's a *lot* of DreamWorkers, working overtime, LOL.

Between that, and Jennifer's high sale price, and the old Randy Phillips place (also by Levitt) selling for over $15 million, it's not actually hard to see why people are floating their Trousdale pads at prices upwards "upwards of $20 million". Courteney Cox's is next, you just watch...that last pocket deal fell through.

Anonymous said...

"Cassie" Meyer also tore down Sinatra's last home next door. No respect - no class! Born on third - behaves like he hit a triple!

Anonymous said...

I spent a lot of time at this house late 80's early 90's. Always had one of the best New Years parties in town with live Black Jack table and lots of folks you would know. Ringo Star's place backs up to it behind the pool area. Awesome underground wine celler where case's of 1958 Rothchild were there for the taking.... 924 Hillcrest

Candy Spelling said...

Fascinating, Carla! Cannot wait to see the finished Katzenberg product!

Since you are the Trousdale expert, can you enlighten me as to who the owner of 1187 Hillcrest is? The mammoth former Danny Thomas home at the very top of the street? I've heard whispers that it's some foreign diplomat or another. Always been curious.

Rosco Mare said...

I like the house, even if Kelly W did decorate it at one time.

I've been waiting commentary from Carla Ridge about the Wasserman house! I'm disappointed that it was demolished - I had hoped to see it one day after reading about it in "The Last Mogul" and "When Hollywood Had A King." Always sad when something beautiful,well crafted, and HISTORIC is destroyed.

Casey Wasserman's mother was Lew and Edie's daughter. His last name was changed to the recognizable Wasserman name, with encouragement from his grandparents, so he would have easier access in life. Maybe Lew and Edie wouldn't care what he did with the place, who knows? It's his business. But still, what a loss!

Anonymous said...

This is the best Hal Leavitt and real treasure. Its also in the hottest are in town wheerre prices are just skyrocketing. Its a better better house than the 35m Jen Aniston house and it doesnt have a shared driveway which Jen's does.

Anonymous said...

The wasserman house didnt compare to the skouas/ellen house...just sayin

Anonymous said...

I've been in pretty much every home in LA deigned by significant architects and I can say the one Ellen just bought is as nice a house as you'll find in LA. Worth every penny they paid for it and more!

Little Miss Smoke and Mirrors said...

Can anyone give me the street number here?